More User Reviews:

Pours a deep deep brown with some serious ruby hue when held up to the light with mocha colored one finger head on top.Aromas of caramel and roasted nuts dominate with a touch of molasses in there as well,pretty sweet and caramelly with a doughy-like backbone with a roasted chesnut finish that lingers with just a slight alcohol element coming thru as it warms.A big and bold doppelbock a great late night sipper.

Poured from the 500ml bottle into a Maudite snifter. Body is a deep brown with golden-orange highlights, crowned by a diminutive tan head that takes an early exit. Aroma of sweet caramel malt, brown sugar, some dark fruit, and a little bit of tangy yeast. Palate is mostly dark fruit sweetness up front, with some caramel malt, brown sugar, and toffee notes as well. Mild fruity hop flavors emerge mid-palate, before the dark, rich finish. Body is creamy and substantial, but not too thick. A tasty beer, but not one of the best doppelbocks around.

Pours out a dark clean brown w/ ruby highlights. Very small head after an agressive pour. Aroma is a malt lovers wet dream. Just the sweet smell of malt here, almost to the point of being meaty. Caramel & alcohol linger in the nose. Unfortunately the taste does'nt quite back up the smell. Still very malty in flavor, but not as thick & complex as the aroma led on. Sweet caramel flavors up front quickly turn somewhat bland really. The taste does'nt last long enough on the tongue. Slick mouthfeel with a cardboard type aftertaste. Not all that drinkable - this is not something I would drink more than one of, but on a snowy night like this it fits nicely.

Pours a dark ruby, almost brown color, with a smallish brown head that leaves a smallish lace. The aroma is of big chewy sweet malts with some dark fruitiness to it and some nice earthy tones as well. This is a nice big brew that doesn't get too sweet. Big chewy maltiness with excellent vinous, fig, and other dark fruit qualities. The brew is very nicely balanced with a decent earthy hoppiness. This is a very smooth medium-full bodied brew with big chewy malts and it is surprisingly non-sticky in the mouthfeel. This is one of the best doppel bocks that I have had and is very drinkable. I'm finding that I am really starting to appreciate this style and get into it more than ever before, I can't wait to try some more of these brews.

Nose is deep and rich.. smells very fresh.. thick toasty malts with touches of raisin.. very complex and surprisingly rich.

Flavors mirror the nose with a touch more malty sweetness than expected for the style.. but the deep maltiness really helps tie the palate together.. toasty with passing notes of chocolate.. a little maple??!!.... don't know where that came from.. :-) The body is expected pretty full with smooth carbonation.. I just can't get over how fresh this tastes compared to alot of the "supermarket" dopplebocks..

Probably a touch sweet for the style.. but still is pretty remarkable.. oh so clean.. a little nuttiness arrives with the warmth... The sweetness makes me strike it down a notch.

I don't know where they are getting these brews at TBC.. but I am not gonna complain... and neither should anybody else.. We always need more/better beer in Idaho and TBC is supplying a nice niche.

Appearence: Pours a clear, very dark copper with a nice, foamy beige head. The head dies down in a few minutes, and has barely any retention.

Smell: Smells wonderful with a strong mix of caramel and molasses. A nice hop presence helps balance it out, without killings the wonderful complexity.

Taste and Mouthfeel: Strong bread and caramel malt notes intertwine amongst molasses and yeast flavors. Hop bitterness is a little low, but only acts as a balancer, not a prominent flavor. Balance is dead on, as well as complexity. The mouthfeel is chewy, sticky, and cloying, but, oh so wonderfully.

Drinkability and Overall: A very interesting, unique, and great sipping doppelbock. It's not one I could sit and drink all night, but it's definitly one I'd love to have again. The reason I picked this one up is because I just recently got an Aktien mug at Goodwill! In the mug, this beer was wonderful.

This beer pours a murky dark brown, opaque in the glass but not quite black. Like their helles lager, a small quater-inch head forms, but it sustains nicely. It smells of dark fruit - raspberries, figs, dates - and chocolate. Swirling brings out hints of molasses. The taste is remarkably balanced, berry-like fruit flavors providing a lot of complexity without cloying the palate. Spicecake and chocolate appear toward the finish, along with some nuttiness and dates. The finish is roasty and dry with a light hop bitterness. Very complex without compromising drinkability, this is awesome stuff.

The beer upon its removal from the 500ml brown bottle sets in my dopplebock glass a deep ruby to almost brown with a smallish frothy light tan head that evaporates quickly leaving the lace to conceal the glass. Nose is malt sweet, hints of molasses, earthy and pleasant to the senses, start is sweet with a middling malt profile; the top is light to middling in its feel. Finish is modestly acidic and the hops pleasantly spicy, quite dry and somewhat bitter aftertaste, a drinkable beer.

Thanks to Dyan for bringing this one. Unexpected, it was a last-minute addition to "The Most Epic Fucking Tasting You Wish You Were A Part Of."

Pours a medium brown color, similar to that of a weizenbock. Upon opening the bottle, there is a scary moment as foam rushes upwards, but it culminates in a meniscus and no beer is lost. In my glass, it looks nice a crisp and clean. The carbonation is nowhere to be found, and as a result, I wonder why the gush was so nearly imminent.

Aroma is classically simple like most of the doppelbocks that I have tried. Toffee and chocolate come through...still not sure how they do that with only 4 ingredients. There is also a very nice German yeast spiciness.

The flavor brings on even more impressiveness. The toffee and dark chocolate usher in a surprising vanilla flavor. Everything is nicely proportioned.

I am astonished by the complexity and simplicity of this beer...in the same breath. This is one of the best doppelbocks that I have had the pleasure of trying. I look forward to my next bottle.

Very fruity in the aroma department. Cherries and figs are the dominant scents. Malty with a good aroma of raisins and plums. Good aromas of almonds like a port wine. Nice aroma of brown sugar and faint rum aroma.

Taste is a little sweet but not sugary sweet. Brown sugar and figs are the first flavors to make a bold appearance. Nutty flavors and rum are the next flavors and the cherries seem to have disappeared. After a while this beer settles in to the taste of rum soaked fruitcake with a nice trace of bitterness in the background.

Mouthfeel is good.

An all around pleasing Doppelbock beer. No flaws at except possibly that it isn't outstanding in any respect just full competent in all of them. This Doppelbock would make an excellent example of the style for any taste training.

Incredibly smooth Doppelbock.
Smell of orange and chocolate with a small hint of a peaty wood. Initial overwhelming taste of chocolate, but toned down with well balanced hops throughout the drink. A complex beer that goes well with cheesecake, which I consumed mine with!

Pours a deep, dark brown with a nice off white head and some good lacing as it goes down. Smell is rich caramel and toffee along with hefty amounts of figs, dates, and other dark fruits. Slight hint of nuttiness as well. Taste really brings the dark fruits forward along with caramel and some candied brown sugar. Mouthfeel is fairly full and nicely warming without really being boozy. Very nice drinkability. Other than Andechser, probably the best Doppelbock that I've come across.

Hell. I know I've had better dopplebocks then this one. I'll post it as soon as I can recall what it was... but I wouldn't hold my breath.

The beer pours a coffee brown color with surprisingly good head retention and OK lacing. On the nose this beer is gorgeous. I get brown sugar, milk chocolate and cherry cough drop, but believe me when I say I get a boatload of all of it. As attractive as this beer smells, it's every bit as good on the palate. This beer is rich and malty; just everything a good German dopple should be. The beer is fairly sweet, but there's just enough hops to keep the beer from becoming heavy or tiring on the palate. The beer has a lovely long, chocolate filled finish. Mouthfeel is fairly full, with a long finish. Drinkability is exceptional, and I'm ever so glad I have another of these bad boys in the fridge. Have no idea what the alcohol is, but it's very well disguised. Just delicious. Very, very impressive.

This beer claims an ancient heritage, going back to 1308 (!) in the same location in Bavaria, and if that's true, somebody's been staying happy for a very long time.

I was somewhat leary of this beer when I bought it (see below), not only because I had never tasted it -- even when I spent a week near Kaufbeuren a few years back -- but becasue there was no "best by" date on the bottles. By the way, Kaufbeuren is only a few miles from Mad Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle near Fuessen in Bavaria, about 80 miles southwest of Munich.

Back to the beer. A very dark amber doppelbock. The first aroma was of chocolate and toasted malt, almost smoky. The pour was smooth, and brought out some nice spice-chocolate-malt aromas, but not a very thick head. The first taste matched the smell: toasty-roasty malt and creamy dark-chocolate in the foreground, rye-bread, pumpkin and maybe even hay(?) in the background, quite dense overall. As the glass warmed, more of the spices came up, with clove and an almost pepper warmth in the long, bitter aftertaste. With so many heavy flavors, the alcohol was almost absent from the taste, but it soon crept up in my noggin. Mmmmm. Soft and warm, like a down comforter around your brain. (I know, it's a weird image, but it paints the picture.) The only disappointments for me were the thin, short-lived head and rather light carbonation.

All in all, this is a comfortably complex and deep doppelbock, smooth and satisfying, and perilously drinkable for 7.5% ABV! Great for a cold night, it may be a bit too heavy for summer, and it's far too strong for a session beer. It went well with a strong-flavored nibble: some sharp cheese and a good German zwiebelwurst (onion-sausage). However, if you like a really chewy beer, this one may feel a bit thin for you.

Give it a try, if you can find it: I was surprised to discover a case of it in a cooler at a little store on S. College in Ft. Collins, CO, where the purveyor didn't even know what a doppelbock was! Still, it's the only place I've seen it around here, so, to quote Ah-nuldt, "I'll be bahk!"

UPDATE December 2004: Wilbur's Wine & Spirits has it. Huge beer selection there -- best place in N Colorado to sample hundreds of different brews. And . . . after having some again, I lower the taste to 4.0 and raise the mouthfeel to 5.0. I poured this at about 38 degrees, let it sit for a full 20 minutes, and it just sort of rounded out. So smoooth and excellent. Still prefer it to Optimator and Salvator.